Wednesday, September 30, 2009

We're gonna be closed down for a week as of today, coz as you know, it's Lara's Birthday (HAPPY B'DAY LUZ!!) plus I am going in to hospital tomoz for a tonsillectomy, so will be out of action for a while.

It was the best birthday present I could think to give her - a silent Teegs! Ha ha.

Friday, September 25, 2009

You gotta see this, if you haven't already! Check out Selvedge House a brand spankin' new business by Brissy blogger's Ellie & Danielle!

I love the concept behind Selvedge House, here's an excerpt of what Ellie had to say about it:

Selvedge House is our idea of the perfect modern crafting shop.

We dream of a place where people can visit and feel inspired as soon as they enter the door. A place of warmth and sharing, of inspiration and installations, of fabric and texture and laughing.

Where beginners to the contemporary crafting world can feel welcome, and the experienced can enhance their skills, while renewing their crafty love.

How awesome does that sound?? About a ten, I reckon!!

By the way, I just have to mention that I think Ellie is quite possibly the Dave Grohl of the Aussie craft world - he's the nicest guy in rock, she's the nicest gal in craft! And that's saying something coz there are a hell of a lot of nice gals in craft out there!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

One of the best things about running a small business like Ink & Spindle (and there are many) is that we can basically change and improve things at the drop of a hat. It feels like we're constantly improving and finding better & more efficient ways of doing things. And we still have a long way to go!

Anyway our old packaging for cut fabric pieces has been bothering me for some time now (bio-degradable cello + header card) so we came up with a much simpler and more natural approach:

I love the way these look now! I can just see these standing up in little rows ordered by colour, like we do our fat quarters. Now off to pester Jem about making us some new market display boxes to put them in!

Monday, September 21, 2009

So we leave Trentham just after 11am, and head in to Daylesford to the Acqua Viva Day Spa where Luz & I indulged in a spot of pampering! We each had a spectacular massage and then an extra long soak in the super-special mineral spring water spa! Omg, it was thoroughly divine! Thank you, Acqua Viva!

Feeling very sleepy, relaxed & zen, we headed back to Daylesford and cruised around, checking out all the lovely old buildings (we love a good bit of old architecture!), then headed down to the Lake. It had rained quite heavily while we were at the spa, but had stopped before we emerged, and everything was glistening & still and had that delicious, fresh, gum tree scent you only get in the bush. We strolled around the lake, quietly watching for blue wrens in the undergrowth, and ducks & dabchicks on the lake.

By this stage Sandy had finished up at the market, so we headed back to Trentham to unload our goodies and chill out at Sandy's ace cottage! She and Murray are only mid reno's but already it is so, so lovely! Sandy has got to be one of the most welcoming and warm people I have ever had the pleasure to spend time with, and she made us feel right at home - not to mention her totally lovable dogs: Bree, Keegan & Chocolate! Bree spent the evening sleeping on me. I adore her, wish I had a pic to show!!

So on Sunday morning, after googling real estate in the area (we wish!), Sandy took us to meet & have morning tea with a friend of hers - none other than Queen of Craft, Tonia Todman!

Well, did we have a ball! Tonia is so genuinely lovely and her husband Michael is hilarious! We had a very civilised morning tea, which before long became wine & crackers, such fun!

Of course, we couldn't go to the Queen of Craft's home without bringing a small token of appreciation for the audience, :) so we put together a little gift package of fabrics! Tonia seemed a little taken aback and very pleased indeed! She was full of praise and encouraging words, and truly thrilled!! :) Thanks, Tonia!

Upon receiving her fabrics, Tonia asked if we'd seen the t-shirt that said "She who dies with the most fabric, wins"? "No," grins I, "I'm in contention, haha!" says she!I thought I must remember that one, as I know quiiiiite a few fabric hoarders...

Her home was full of surprising and beautiful things - too many to go in to detail - but this is one set of interesting things. Hand carved woodblocks!

After finally leaving Tonia & Micheal's, we went to the little town of Kyneton and had a wander around admiring more lovely old buildings before heading homeward.

All in all, a truly wonderful weekend, all thanks to the lovely Sandy!

So after admiring our wonderful host's stall, and moaning a little about the early morning we had all had, Luz & I wandered off to check out the rest of the cute little Market... and promptly spent our entire weekend's allowance :( But so worth it! :)

Here's what we ended up with:

...mmmmmm...

Here's where we got it:

Pud For All Seasons - the makers of Traditional Christmas Pudding! And they had a couple of variety's of Dairy Free pud, so we totally bought some for desert - and yep, delish!

We all know Luz is a lip balm addict, so she partook of a gorgeous Shea Butter Balm from Cleopatra Soaps

OMG. The best stuff eva. Nut Butters by Goodfoods of Castlemaine.There were about 15 varieties, all more delicious than the last!We gorged on the Lemon Dukkah for lunch - I can't recommend it highly enough.. *drool*Someone needs to stock these here in Melbs! Preferably in Kensington...

I'm sure quite a few of you will know Wildings - such a gorgeous range of delicious, locally made Pantry Essentials!

A packet of delicious organic Peppermint & Green Tea from Bliss Blend, for the studio!

Then when we thought we were all shopped out, we found Davo's Worm Farm!I was very excited.I had mass worm death in the 47 degree heat wave of last summer and so seeing Davo was all the encouragement I needed to get my A in to G and get my farm back in to action! One step closer to sustainable living - I love it!

Friday, September 18, 2009

This time it's super-extra special as we are going to FIN-ally be doing what sooo many people have been bugging, er, asking us to do ever since we began all these shenanigans!

... a demo print run, starting at 11am sharp!

See below!

Check out the fan-tab-ulous poster that the Sixto from Too Yeah Media' made for us! What a guy! This is the second time he has donated his time and skillz (yes, that's skillz with a 'z') to making us an Open Studio thingy - so big up's to Mr Sixto - check out his stuff! He's so great!

Oh, and come watch us print! Hooray!

(Warning: if you're in to that kind of thing - and obviously we're not - turns out it's on grand final day, so don't double book!)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

We have still not caught up on everything we needed to, since Sydney, hence the extreme quiet on the blogfront!

So what have we been doing? Well, these big fat bolts for one!

HOLY BOLTS!

Aren't they pretty?

That's 150m's of Natural Cotton/Linen all ready to fly off to Lena & Zasa in Antwerp, Belgium!

Phew!

We've also just sent another similarly big batch off to Brooklyn General Store in New York, plus a whole bunch of printing was completed for a secret (and exciting) new client who we're sure you already know & love... but we can't reveal anything just yet, so more on that at a later date ;)

In the meantime, please enjoy this bouquet! (The visual equivalent of elevator music.)

This weeks pretty flowers! Much the same as last weeks, but y'know. Fresher.

So, in short, we have spent the last few weeks doing basically nothing but printing (if you've emailed us and I haven't responded yet - sorry! It's on my to-do list!).

But, things are going to be a little more exciting in the upcoming weeks! For starters there'll be 4 (that's right - FOUR!) birthday's in forty days!

But there's only three people, I hear you say! Very observant of you, says I, but the fourth birthday belongs not to a person, but to Ink & Spindle itself!

That's right we'll be celebrating our Very First Birthday on Sat Oct 17th! And hells yes, we're havin' a shindig to celebrate!! So save the date, peeps! We'll make up a pretty invite & blog about it sooooon...

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Hello, My name is Bec and I am 'the first ever intern' at Ink and Spindle.. YAY!!I am now up to my 4th day with only one more to go and the girls have trustedme to update the blog for them.... hmmmm, could be interesting as I havenever blogged before...

'Tada... here are samples of my first ever screen printing effort...fun fun or as Teeg's would say 'funsies'...

And there you have it... I have learned so much from the lovely Ink and Spindlefamily.. although I did not get to meet Bee :0(Thank you so much Lara and Teeg's for teaching me the many parts of your excitingbusiness... mixing inks, screen printing (I even got to use the big screens today) and best of all.. to blog, I can't wait to get home and do my own blog so I can be part of the fabulous little world of blogging that is out there... keep and eye out for me!!!And I will be back, even if just for a visit and a quick nip down to Elevenses to get some Beans and Eggs.. thanks Tom and Shanny xx

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Oooh we are huge fans of spring time around here. And to celebrate I decided to decorate our lounge/meeting area with some native flowers. There's a lovely little corner flower shop around here that specialises in natives so I asked the owner to put together this bunch for us - lovely.

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Ink & Spindle is a boutique textile studio located in Kensington, Melbourne. Run by Lara Cameron and Caitlin Klooger, we screen print all our textiles by hand on a 10m table in an ethical and sustainable manner.

We are inspired by all things natural and our city of Melbourne. We love being a part of the local design community and collaborating with other creative & lovely people.

open studio dates

Come watch a printing demonstration, have a cup of tea, a chat and browse our textiles!